This invention relates to systems and methods of using RFID technology to capture information posted on a whiteboard, corkboard, bulletin board, or other display board.
People use whiteboards, corkboards, and bulletin boards to present or display information. For example, these types of boards can be used to plan schedules, plot out workflows, display flowcharts, and for numerous other projects. When a person wants to transfer the information presented on one of these boards to a different medium, there are several options. Often, a person simply copies the contents of the board by hand onto another surface or by typing it into a computer.
Alternatively, several mechanisms have been developed to electronically capture the information from the board. For example, a person can take a photograph of the board. Some whiteboards allow electronic capture of the writing on the whiteboard by recording pen strokes or using touch sensitive surfaces. These techniques could also be used to generate an image, such as a pdf or jpeg file. Then, the images of the whiteboard contents can be scanned, for example using OCR techniques, to interpret text. However, OCR is limited by the resolution of the image. These techniques are also limited in their ability to capture changes that are made to the contents of the board. For example, a person may affix a post-it note to the board, tack a new document to the board, affix a document to the board that at least partially overlaps other information on the board, or rearrange documents. These changes are not automatically and accurately captured by existing electronic capture mechanisms.